Lee West

Saints fan (obviously); #oilspill and #fracking watchdog, technophile, communicator, filmmaker, writer, dolphin hugger. Opinions I share here are mine alone.

[Lee West @WhoDat35]

One billionaire owner, twice the hate: #Twitter hate #speech surged with Musk, study says. https://t.co/ednwdXXTGP

[Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM]

Zelenskyy writes to Putin in an open letter and proposes direct talks to end Russia's war, citing Trump's disinterest: "Ukraine proposes to end this war."

"This must be done honestly, with dignity, and with guarantees that the war will not be reignited.

"We see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention.

"Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you.

"I am proposing a meeting."

[Jack Hopkins @thejackhopkins]

According to Andrew Weissmann, Blanche using sleight of hand; they’re not killing the deal. Trump still gets $1.776 billion. He still gets a sweeping civil liability shield. They only removed the J6 slush fund piece. Same jackpot. Less scrutiny. Worse than before.

[Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew]

At least 40 pardoned insurrectionists have been rearrested, charged or sentenced for other crimes since January 6, 2021—including child sex crimes, weapon possession, reckless driving and rape.

12 of them allegedly reoffended after Trump's pardon.
https://t.co/DS5rAd4GCg

[Ashish K. Jha @ashishkjha]

We had eliminated measles and are about to lose our measles eradication status

We had eradicated screwworm but its making its way back

Keeping these scourges at bay requires active surveillance and action

[Senator Dick Durbin @SenatorDurbin]

While Russia bombs Ukraine and kills civilians, President Trump is bizarrelysending a delegation to a conference in Russia to discuss economic development.

I challenged Secretary Rubio today to explain why we would send any U.S. official to a such an event designed to prop up Putin's war machine.

[Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVance]

They have something to hide. We need to find out what it is.

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

BREAKING: Senate Republicans have just begun a marathon vote-a-rama in the Senate.

Why? Not to lower health care or housing costs. Instead, they are fighting tooth & nail to give ICE another $70 billion blank check with ZERO reforms.

A disgrace.

[Senator Tim Kaine @SenTimKaine]

Bill Pulte should NOT be the Director of National Intelligence, even in an acting capacity. This is going to be a battle in the Senate, and I’m going to do all I can to make sure we have someone actually qualified in this critical national security role.

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

Trump, Musk and Rubio slashed aid and scoffed that it was woke nonsense. Now they're seeing that it not only saved one life every 10 seconds but also protected us from diseases like Ebola. Their actions constituted a security failure as well as a moral one.
More broadly, their fecklessness contrasts with the courage and humanity of doctors and aid workers in Congo and Uganda, lacking adequate PPE but still risking the virus to care for fellow humans.
Trump, Musk and Rubio might learn something from them. https://t.co/kPKj7fqJFZ

[Jim Acosta @Acosta]

When I called out Trump years ago for being a danger to democracy, a free press, and truth itself, I was accused of making myself the story and showboating. How did things turn out? Trump is all of those things. Tonight, the free press is very much in danger in America. Wake up!

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Trump’s budget director Russ Vought is the most dangerous person you’ve never heard of.

And he just proposed turning every federal grant into a loyalty test.

His plan would make funding for cancer research, housing, transportation, and public health depend on one thing: whether it “advances the President’s policy priorities.”

Not whether it works.

Not whether Congress authorized it.

Whether it pleases Trump.

This is the appropriations power. It belongs to Congress and to the people.
To my Republican colleagues: where are you?

Congress passed this funding. You voted for it.

Vought is telling you to your faces that your votes do not matter, that he and his enablers will override the law whenever it suits them. Every day you stay silent, you give away the institution you were elected to defend.

Grow a spine.

This is not about left or right.

It is about whether Congress still exists as a coequal branch, or whether we have quietly surrendered the purse to an unelected hack who holds the Constitution in contempt.

History will remember who stood up and who looked away.
https://t.co/2yHKBTNLbj

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

SEN. @RonWyden: “Trump has set the new high water mark for public corruption… everybody in 🇺🇸 is subject to IRS audit except the Trumps. I take it as an admission of his own guilt when it comes to tax cheating. Trumps have stuffed every dollar they can into their pockets.”

[Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat]

Lawless plunderers are in control of the US government. I warned about Trump's desire to "get" Greenland in my book #Strongmen. Rubio is the just the latest enabler.

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

It's been two weeks since I connected Trump's Acting Attorney General with Epstein survivors and they haven't heard a peep from the DOJ. That's disgraceful.

Todd Blanche said he'd meet with them—and I will not let him off the hook.

Epstein survivors deserve justice.

[Jesus Freakin Congress @TheJFreakinC]

🚨BREAKING: The Secretary of Homeland Security just admitted, on camera, that he is going to violate your First Amendment right to free speech.

He said, “I have ZERO tolerance. If you verbally assault our officers… we will find you, we will arrest you.”

Except… that’s not how the First Amendment works.

Unless someone is making a credible threat of violence, speech… even rude, angry, or insulting speech… is still protected.

That’s the whole point of a free speech clause… to protect the people from situations where those in power don’t like what’s being said.

So, when a top federal official starts framing “verbal assault” as something you can be arrested for, without clearly defining it as an actual threat…

It stops sounding like protecting officers, and starts sounding like a government trying to silence people who speak out against it.

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

Trump and Stephen Miller built up a paramilitary force at DHS that they essentially promised immunity, and set it loose on American communities.

I'm not going to write a blank check for a federal agency that refuses to distinguish between American citizens and violent criminals.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Rep. Keating to Rubio: "I'm sure you're aware that Ukraine, country that at the time had third-largest nuclear arsenal, peacefully turned over their nuclear weapons in conjunction with Budapest Memorandum.

And in exchange for U.S. commitment to defend Ukraine if it ever came under threat. The U.S. gave its word to Ukraine that it would defend them.

And I find this amazing. In your opening remarks, as you took us all over the world and mentioned 15 different incidents where you have interceded — 15, the top 15 — not once did you mention Ukraine when you were prioritizing achievements that are there."

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

That’s not a ceasefire then.

(the number of Trump-era stories that get written on deals that don’t exist or deals that are “imminent” but totally aren’t is bananas)

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Rep. Olszewski to Marco Rubio: "I may have to get you a new pair of glasses because the facts are right in front of you, and it seems like malpractice for the Secretary of State to not be able to see this president and his family enriching themselves by billions of dollars."

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Sen. Murphy to Markwayne Mullin: "You've spent the first two months of your tenure threatening to suspend international arrivals in states represented by Democrats. Not only would that throw our entire air travel system into chaos. It's completely illegal."